A yet-to-be-identified teenager drowned at the BarBeach, Lagos as revellers celebrated Eid-el-fitri inthe area on Friday. A fun seeker, who witnessed theincident and identified himself simply as Michael,said there was a heavy traffic of persons at thebeach while there were only two live guards onduty.

According to the witness, the teenage boy wasspotted by a few people who were standing at thetip of the ocean. He said three unidentified youngmen made frantic attempts to see if they couldrescue the drowning boy, but they could notmuster enough courage to move into the centre ofthe ocean. He said the high waves of the surgingocean were too much for the volunteers, whoeventually gave up the idea of saving the victim.

According to him, all the fun seekers aroundwatched helplessly as the boy struggled and wasfinally submerged by water. However, other funseekers continued with their fun as if nothing hadhappened.

It was learnt that nobody came out to complainabout a missing person before most of the funseekers left the beach. It was learnt that a younglady initially raised the alarm, believing erroneouslythat the victim was her brother, but she soon keptcalm when she saw her own brother.

Spokesperson for the National EmergencyManagement Agency, Ibrahim Farinloye, whoconfirmed the tragedy on Friday, told SaturdayPUNCH that the victim had not been identified. “Thebody has been taken to the mortuary. It is just sadthat this had to happen despite the warnings weissued that people should stay off the beachbecause of an impending ocean surge,” he said.

Farinloye said the warning issued by NEMA statedthat there might be an ocean surge of a minimumof four days and maximum of five days, appealingto revellers to avoid swimming at the beach forsome days. “People are allowed to go to the beachbut they should not swim. For some months, theocean had been monitored and the warningsNEMA issued were consistent with the signs thatwere noticed, which showed that there might be anocean surge,” he said.